Set on the Plane of Air

Set in the Middle of Lake Quag

So far…

XP: Session 1: Brottor, Illene, Jarik and Maethil are on the receiving end of 3600 xp; Kendrick is on the receiving end of 6200 xp.
Session 2: 2480 xp to Brottor, Illene and Maethil
Session 3: 4600 xp to Brottor, Illene, Maethil and Jarik

The cursed wishing well turned Twilight Sparkle bright pink. Unlike the other “blessings” from the wishing well, this one didn’t fade away completely, and has left Twilight Sparkle a vibrant purple color.

You have each received Perren’s Gift. To Brottor, it was his Coat of Arms. To Illene, it was a promotion in the den Zauber. To Gildon, it was to have the most powerful bow in the nation forged for him. To Maethil, Jarik, and Kendrick, it was to procure them with the gifts of the Voorman (included in the list of loot above).

Set in Dorakaa

After Kendrick took his leave of the party to investigate some troubling reports coming out of Ulmt (or to seek out one of those ever-elusive wenches in the local tavern, or perhaps both), the rest of the rest of you find yourself standing on the Critwall bridge, face-to-face with the Shade once more. Because of the increasingly disturbing intelligence that you have been gathering, suggesting that Iuz is raising a massive army of strange and terrible monsters, the Shade tells you that the Drinkers urgently seek additional knowledge regarding Iuz’s plans—-knowledge which can only be obtained from inside Doraaka itself. Knowing the great peril that you would face, the Shade assures you that no one would think any less of you were you to decline this quest…but foolish or brave, you all accept. The Shade gives you all many warnings: not to pray for spells, not to attempt any divination, to avoid direct conflict as far as possible, and above all, not to say the name “I-U-Z” under any circumstance. Each of you is given a ring of mind-shielding to protect you from discovery.

The first trouble is how to get inside Doraaka in the first place. The shade provides you with a wagon carrying ore and special materials to deliver to a blacksmith named Saljin, whom they can recognize by asking the question, “Is the wine in this city any good?”, where Saljin will reply “No, but the ale makes up for that by being terrible.” But to even get inside the city, you must cross the Devouring Bridge, and the demon that guards it demands a sacrifice. The party, reluctantly, refuses to offer Panea, a gnomish serial killer, and opts to find their own way across.

After several days of travel (and after dispatching some werewolf lords), the party is met by a party of demons from the Castle of Foul Breezes. who offer to take you into the city safely and provide you with an alternate way out, provided that you share first with them any information you acquire. The party accepts and the demons lead you through the city by way of the Abyss.

Once inside the city, you make your way to Saljin, who correctly answers your challenge and takes you to his quarters, which he offers you to use as your base during your time in the city. He only begs you that when you are ready to leave, that you take him with you, for he is exhausted from the long years of serving undercover in this foul place.

As your days in Doraaka drag on, you have an encounter with the city’s Drow enclave, where you find a bit of information about the city, and where Jarik finds out a lot more about Drow royalty than he ever wanted to know. You find an empty tower in the Orc encampment, where you can spy on parts of the city. In the end, all of your searching leads you to a warehouse full of coffins. Jarik wants everyone to toss a body and take its place in a coffin, but the rest of the party was reluctant. Instead, the party leaves a card of the sharp in one of them, and Brottor follows them when the coffins are picked up for delivery to who knows where—-until the card mysteriously vanishes. Eventually, everyone decides to hitch a ride in a coffin, and you find yourselves in the Greater Boneheart Null’s pocket plane. You make your way into Null’s laboratory. As you begin to search the place, Null himself appears and demands, “What are you doing in my secret place?” He proves a powerful opponent, casting spells to create a blinding storm and to confuse Jarik, to the point where he almost killed Brottor by mistake! Eventually, to your surprise, you manage to bring the wizard down, but his body then dissolves into a pile of ice and snow! You realize that the reason you’re still breathing is that this was not Null himself, but merely a simulacrum.

You search and loot the laboratory and the Boneheart’s library, finding notes and various magical books…and a room, previously hidden, containing thousands of demundead. The whole place begins violently convulsing, and you quickly take the hint that it’s time to leave. You return to pick of Saljin, but find him slain and raised as a zombie. It’s a trap! Your rings of mental resistance shatter, and swarms of Iuz’s forces begin pouring in all around Saljin’s house. You decide it’s time to leave, and use the items the demons gave you for this purpose.

You find yourselves standing in an open field in Furyondy, standing before the demons from the Abyss. You keep your end of the bargain, telling the demons what you have learned. Being demons, they decide to leave a few of their company behind to kill you for your trouble, but you just manage to defeat them. As you prepare to leave, you all hear Null’s voice in your heads: “O yes, you have certainly gained my attention now.”

Set in Perrenland

Set in the Yatil Mountains

Our heroes polished their armor and shined their boots: their was a wedding and their friend lil’ Janni was the best man.

Traveling to Krestible, they found the town in anticipation for the wedding. Everything was ready except li’l Janni who was nowhere to be found. Our intrepid adventurers, ever willing to help, set out to find the jovial paladin.

Reaching the nearest town over and probing around in a dwarven tavern, they discovered that Janni had been hired to investigate the disappearance of a party of explorers. In turn, the party set out to save the rescuer.

Marching out into the hills the party found a cave and a deep pool of water with a glint of gold at the bottom. Brottor dove in as a polar bear, and was barely able to fight off the wild current to retrieve what turned out to be a magical rod. Inside the cave an ice wall encased a traveller. Chipping past the wall, an icicle avalanche nearly killed Gildon. The traveler had nothing but a mysterious broken pot.

They ran into a talking rock that Gildon could understand, but was unable to converse with. After some one-sided conversation, they left him. They began climbing some perilous mountains and ran across a suicidal woman claiming she heard spirits in her head. Touching the woman and saving her from certain doom, the same voice could be heard, and some more one-sided conversation was had.

Finally reaching the summit, there was some sort of temple, probably made relatively recently (past few hundred years). Inside were some giant sized footprint, which lead directly to the paladin Janni. He was raving mad so the party beat him into unconsciousness, which forced out a spirit of sorts which was subsequently destroyed. Janni was brought back to consciousness. The remainder of the complex revealed a chamber full of pots and another expired traveller from the lost expedition. Brottor greedily filled his sacks with pots, to much cheering from Kendrik and much protest from Jarik. Leaving the summit, the party could make out the lifeless body of the last member of the expedition, which they retrieved on their way down.

Little Janni saved, and the mystery of the failed expedition solved they made their way back to Krestible. While travelling, you met a high arcanist of the den Zauber guild, who explained that the pots contained the spirits of ancient people, and having a spirit tied to you could yield ancient wisdom. So they all did the ceremony, except Jarik because he was too superstitious, and the high wizard kept all the other looted pots “for the good of the nation”. What a sack of croc. On the bright side, he paid us for it, so we can’t complain too much.

Set in the Lands of Iuz

After returning from exploring the Isles of Woe (with Gildon carrying Malthindor, Oblivion’s Blade), you found that the sword was urging you to head north. Immediately after disembarking from the ship Brightspray, you met Motair Castock, the scholar from Greyhawk City to whom you delivered an Ether specimen in “Into the Dying Lands”. Motair explains that his master is offering to teleport you far to the north to a dungeon said to contain a pair of ancient, withered hands. You agreed, and soon found yourselves at the entrance of the Sepulcher of the Wizard King.

After sliding Malthindor into a crack in the dungeon door and solving a straightforward riddle, you gained entrance to the dungeon. As you explored, you soon noticed that the dungeon architect seems to have had a rather serious obsession with hands and fingers. You made short work of the earliest opposition you encountered: animated stones the coalesce into humanoid shapes with a large hand in place of the head.

Venturing on, you found a hall containing several murals depicting the fall of Yagrax, the ancient, powerful wizard who was killed and dismembered, as he could not be completely destroyed. You then encounter a hall containing skeletons. Attempting to continue past them, the skeletons suddenly turned to red-hot, burning ash! Pressing on, you passed another hall with murals ad then met a fearsome guardian of the temple: a stone golem! The golem sent a swarm of animated swords and daggers that kept Illene, Gildon, and Brottor occupied while the golem proved itself a fearsome enemy: it rendered Jarik unconscious in less than a minute and beat Kendrick to within an inch of his life. But at the final moment, when the golem had cornered Kendrick, he missed the finishing blow, giving Jarik (who was saved and healed by Illene and Brottor) the last swing, killing the golem just in time.

Exhausted and nearly out of resources with no avenue of retreat and no way to resupply, you decided you had no choice but to camp and heal your wounds. Returning to the dungeon, you found a large hall littered with broken stones. A side tunnel led you far below the earth, to the City of the Undying, those left behind in the sealed dungeon, keeping an eternal watch. Before reaching the city proper, you encountered Malcrux, an insane wizard that immediately put a spell on Jarik that took him out of the fight, muttering about some sort of unpleasant experiments the wizard planned to carry out. The rest of you fought and defeated him, finding a small crystal shard afterward.

You then came to the bridge into the City. You ultimately chose (wisely) to avoid fighting the guardians of the bridge, instead letting Illene bluff them into thinking that you are mage priests who have returned. You were taken to the city temple, where you were told that you would soon be tested. You tried to determine what “soon” meant but could make little sense of their bizarre units of time and distance. You were given temporary residence and took your time to tour the city, learning a bit of its history and exploring the other houses and the forge. Finally, you were summoned to the temple and given a test: you were directed to repair the city’s water works, which was damaged in the recent earthquake. You managed to find and piece together crystal shards (including the one you found in Malcrux’s lair) which magically power the device, you removed some debris clogging a pipe, and you repaired some damaged gears.

Passing the test, you were admitted to the inner halls of the dungeon. You found an evil ooze and dispatched it, although it destroyed Jarik’s warhammer in the process. You then found a lock opened by a puzzle involving the four elements. After some trial and error (Kendrick bore the brunt of the error), you managed to decode the puzzle and unlock the door. You then found yourselves in a long hallway, where a sense of final despair overcame some of you as you came into the final chamber containing five sealed chests. Inside one chest were the Hands of Yagrax, the object of your search. The chests were guarded by two Undying Ones, corrupted by the influence of the hands. You managed to defeat the fighter, but the wizard proved extremely resilient and deadly. Although you finally managed to slay the wizard, the victory came at great cost: Illene was slain!

You opened the chests and found the Hands of Yagrax, which decided they liked Jarik the best and took upon crawling all over him, making him a little intimidating but also a little distracted in combat. To avoid this, Jarik eventually put the hands back in the chest, although they still plagued him with bad dreams. Motair returned, telling you that he will lead you back to Tenh, where the ether threat began, and where you hope you it will end…

XP: 1682 XP to Brottor and Jarik; Illene died and goes back to 24500 XP and then regains 1682 XP; Kendrick gains 1932 XP and levels (but Gildon is still level 5)
GP: After selling the items you acquired and paying off the reincarnate spell for Illene, you have a grand total of 1342 gp profit this round.
Items:

You picked up a Ring of Protection +1, which replaces Gildon’s ring that was sold for expedient purposes.

Set in the Isles of Woe on the Nyr Dyv

Legendary rumblings alerted us to to importance of finding the hands of Yagrax to stop the Ether threat. However, finding the hands first required finding a legendary sword that could guide us to them…

Groveling our way onto a grumpy captains boat (who unfortunately did not allow The Buckinator, son of Buck’s Revenge, may he rest in peace, onboard) we made our way to the Isles of Woe in the Nyr Dyv, a few days from the Greyhawk coast. These had disappeared for some time, only recently reappearing from the ether. We thought this would make it worthwhile to investigate them in regards to the ehter threat.

We met a jovial dragon turtle who gave us some background information (and a bit of a scare) and told us he’d be willing ot trade magical items when we got back. The captain gave us three days to investigate the island (overkill as we found out).

Embarking on the island, Brottor’s keen eyes spotted a cave. After some one-sided deliberation, we convinced the grumpy dwarf that investigating the cave first was the right move. Inside we happened upon a small lake, roughly 30’ deep. Brottor, as a polar bear, went for a swim with Jarik to investigate. They were found by an octopus hidding in the pool. We were about to dive in and attack it, when it smacked Brottor really hard and we beat a hasty retreat to regroup. The boss healed up Brottor, and Jarik chugged a potion of swimming (purchased from the sea captain), and we proceeded to make calamari out of the eight legged sucker. Exploring the pool, we found a narrow tunnel that the octopus appeared to be guarding.

Kendrick drank a potion of swimming, Illene turned into some swimming lizardthing, and we proceeded to explore the underwater tunnel. Bruising our way down the shaft, we reached a locked door with an ancient inscription. It said something about requiring magical hands to open it. Illene knocked the door down causing the water to rush through and sweep us into an air-filled room. We crossed through another inscribed arch, which revealed a sword on a pedestal. Kendrick bravely took the sword, but was unable to answer its riddle about who was the man who started all the trouble with Yagrax. He was really lucky not to get cursed, I think. Shoving the sword in a sack, we swam out and investigated the rest of the island.

We found the remains of a ruined village, fought some monsters and found a hut that appeared inhabited by a single humanoid. The humanoid turned out being a druid, charged with protecting the sword. Turned out he had done a fairly bad job at it. It also turned out we had killed his animal companion (the Octopus) so he was kinda grumpy. Illene talked things over and convinced him we needed the sword more than him (but he got geased into using it for it’s intended purpose) so he let us leave.

We got back on the boat, traded a bunch of loot so Jarik could get a belt of giant strength, and sailed off to stop the ether threat. Turns out the sword points towards the hands of Yagrax (we think). So far it has just taken us to the lands of Iuz.

XP: 500 to Brottor, Illene, and Jarik. 850 to Kendrick. I told you this was a small adventure ;-) Illene spent 8 xp scribing scrolls.
GP: none
Items:

Set in the Burning Cliffs of the Barren Wastes, North of the Lands of Iuz

It began with a missive from the Shade, summoning you to Critwall. There, you met the enigmatic woman, who informed you of a research tower in the lands of Iuz, where the creation of the strange creatures seemed to be based. The Shade wanted you to ransack the tower, and bring back any and all information you could find. For some reason, a large event was taking place in Dorakaa, and the tower was expected to be empty while those celebrations lasted. Agreeing, you were told to come back the next morning, when you would be teleported to your destination.

Your destination turned out to be in the Burning Cliffs, far to the North of the lands of Iuz. A mage teleported you there, and gave you a signalling device, which you could use to summon him back to teleport you home.

Approaching the tower, you were met by an Imp by the name of Zezaxittaz, who said that he could postpone the alarm in the tower, but only if you smashed his summoning gem and killed his clones within the tower. He could postpone the alarm for only ten minutes, but each imp killed would give you another three.

The tower turned out to have a walled enclosure that also contained two other buildings. You gained entry by crossing the walls. Once inside the compound, you were attacked by fire elementals.

You went for the tower first. Entering by the back door, you found little of interest on the first floor, except for a secret passage heading down deep. You killed an imp on the first floor. The second floor had another imp in a specimen laboratory, where you found a lot of specimens of outsiders, and a logbook. The second floor also had a library where it appeared that somebody was studying hybrid creatures and the Abyssal plane. A secret library held specimens of the created species feldamon and crianca, as well as a spellbook.

The third floor held another imp, as well as a vault which contained the summoning gem, as well as some Abyssal onyx stones. The fourth floor had a golem crafting workshop, where you smashed some constructed creatures. It appeared that the golems were being crafted out of cold iron.

Next, you headed down to the basement, but were unable to figure out how to unlock the door down the bottom, so you headed outside. The forge was next, where you found and dispatched of another imp. There was a huge stockpile of cold iron weapons in the forge. It appeared that somebody was preparing for war. The other building in the compound was a storage house, and it contained vast stockpiles of cold iron.

As you were preparing to leave, Brottor thought to look over the cliff on which the compound was situated, and noted that about 300 feet down the cliff, there was another building of sorts. Illene decided to leave the compound while Brottor and Jarik investigated. The structure turned out to just house bats, but there was a door in the cliff. Smashing through that, and the next door, you found and killed the final clone. You found yourselves in a holding pen of some sort, although there were no creatures there at the moment. In the next room, you found the underground laboratory, defended by two feldamon, which almost killed you. A quick search of the desk found some potions and a research logbook. A supply room held a dead umberhulk in a vat, and the final door held a trap that teleported you back to the surface.

Your time up, you decided to leave. Zezaxittaz thanked you before disappearing to the Nine Hells, and you summoned the mage to bring you home. You gave the following to the Shade along with your report:

Knowledge that the Abyss, the outer planes, demon anatomy and weaknesses, celestial creatures, and hybrid creatures were being studied

Specimen jars of feldamon and crianca, as well as two books found in the secret library

The Abyssal onyx gemstones

The specimen log

Dragon ash vials you found with the spare golem parts

Notice of the weapon stockpile

The research log

Knowledge of the umberhulk in storage

The Shade thanked you for your efforts, and as part of your payment, told you about her secretive organisation, called the Drinkers of the Cup of Midnight.

Set in Schwartzenbruin

Editor’s note: Memory is a malleable and unreliable thing, subject to deceit. No warranty is made that this summary is complete or accurate. -K

Troubled by the ill wind befalling Perrenland and somber after the service to Karenin Weisspeer, we made our way through the city of Schwartzenbruin when we were approached by a messenger. He delivered us a letter from our patron, Hasten Weisspeer and waited for us to read it and give a reply. In it, Hasten wrote of his suspicions concerning the new voorman, Orgus Bildgear, and his suspected ties to the Old One. He told us about the Girdle of Dian, which protects all of Schwartzenbruin from demonic invasion by preventing all summoning magic from working. He instructed us to remove it away to keep it safe from an Iuzian scheme to steal it, and to bring it to his contact in nearby Klatsberg, where it could be returned for safekeeping back to the place it was made. He suggested that we start with his friend the druid Jan Apfel, who could help us gain access to the girdle. He also told us that we must tell no one of the letter and burn it after reading, only giving the reply “yes” or “no” to the messenger. We of course replied in the affirmative, and then gave the letter to Illene for memorization and destruction.

We proceeded to the druid’s grove and spoke with Jan to get access to the girdle. He was uncooperative at first, but with a gift from Kendrick of cheap wine, he eventually agreed to help us into the Castle of Dian, which held the girdle. We made our preparations and met him in the middle of the night in front of the castle, where he opened the door for us and then departed. Within, we found the Lundoak, fabled to reflect in its branches the condition of Perrenland, and it looked rather unwell. We were attacked from within by two hags, who nearly killed Illene, but were soon dispatched by us. We found a portal, and lacking any other course of action, we proceeded through.

On the other side, we found a place that where the colors were even more vivid than they usually are. It was a pleasant contrast with the Plane of Shadows. There were multiple paths available, and not knowing which way to continue, we chose one and soon came upon a small henge, with a gnome in residence. He seemed a friendly enough chap, and upon parting he advised that we really must go see the lake. Continuing along a different trail we came to a cave, within which we found a dead figure in a robe, who had recently been killed by arrows.

After thoroughly searching the caves, we eventually found the end, wherein was the very Schwartzenbruin, a legendary bear sharing the same name as the city. We had been drawn by cries for help, which apparently came from a man standing high up on the wall, who asked for our help in escaping the bear, while the bear in turn wanted our help in swatting the man. Illene was quick to aid the bear, granting the bear a vastly improved jumping skill from a spell, which allowed him to reach the man and finish him. We then learned that the bear was defending the girdle from a band who was trying to steal it, and that one had escaped through a portal to the girdle. We followed through in order to stop him.

On the other side, we found ourselves in a room with no doors except the portal, and a grey elf standing guard, with several sarcophagi nearby. It turned out that the brigand had been killed already, or at least soon would be dead, and we swiftly received a face full of fireball, courtesy of the elf. Finding the situation to be quite other than we had expected, Jarik and I employed the better part of valor and left through the portal once more. Kendrick and Gildon were not so prudent, however, suffering a bout of vacuousness that induced them to remain several more seconds, nearly killing Gildon in the process. Meanwhile, Illene discovered that the elf considered Illene an ally, since they shared the same race, and subsequently Illene made a show of aiding the elf in scaring away the intruders. Once alone, the elf fell catatonic.

We all returned to the room, and a quick search yielded the location of the belt. We began to discuss ways to sneak it out. I discovered I could not conceal it by the use of wild shape, and it became clear that Jarik and I would not be able to contribute to smuggling the belt. Further discussion of what to do with the incapacitated elf took a darker turn, and when Jarik discovered that he could not overcome Kendrick, we both decided to leave the others to deal with the belt. We headed through the portal and shortly afterward departed for the lake.

Illene and Kendrick decided not to kill the helpless elf, and instead took all his valuables. Then after making preparations, Kendrick stowed the belt in his bag and made a mad dash for the cave entrance. He got by the bear, and though he gave chase the bear could not catch him. Illene and Gildon followed soon after, but found themselves bottled up by the bear at the cave entrance. Eventually, they managed to get by and split off. Gildon ran and Illene hid in the woods.

At the lake, we found that the water was exceptionally clear, clean, and refreshing. There was nothing magical we could find about it, but when I swam in it I found that it made me feel more pure, like an ideal of myself. I told Jarik about this and he took a swim as well.

We found Kendrick in the woods and returned to the portal where we encountered Gildon making all speed for it, with the bear in hot pursuit. Gildon went through the portal first and we followed immediately after. He immediately had several arrows through him and almost died again. We came through the portal after and fought a group of foes waiting there to ambush us. Kendrick also found himself close to death, but we made quick work of the enemies and he was well. One of our enemies actually surrendered and with a little prodding revealed that he was sent as a servant of the Dark One in the case that Hasten failed, indicating that Hasten was likewise nefarious.

This was a troubling revelation, and more troubling still is its reconciliation with our own thoughts. For us to steal the belt away must be just as bad as for anyone else to steal it away, so really what were we doing? Hasten had never given us instruction by sending secret letters; he’d always sent for us to meet him in person. With his soul locked away for a while in a black soul gem, he could well have become corrupted somehow, and may not be the Hasten we once knew. With this in mind, we decided to camp overnight and then cast a Divination to gain further insight about what we should truly do.

The next morning we cast the Divination and received the clear answer that we must surely return it to the bear or else Perrenland is doomed. Jarik and I wanted to do so immediately, and Illene sided with us as well, but Kendrick wanted to go deliver it to Hasten’s contact. When we presented a united front against him however, he gave in, and I volunteered to return it to the bear, which I did with profuse apologies. I also told Illene about the lake and Illene took a swim there as well.

When we emerged from the castle, we were greeted by the guards, who arrested us in connection with the death of Karenin. We spoke to Orgus about that matter and were absolved of wrongdoing. He also told us of his own suspicions about Hasten, which agreed with ours added further evidence against him. We parted from Orgus and went into the city pondering the events that had occurred.

A great evil nearly befell Perrenland today due to our own foolishness. This knowledge has me shaken, and I must never allow the like to happen again. I shall trust my instincts, and those of Jarik, in always pursuing the right. May Obad-Hai and the other Perrenese gods be with us.

DM’s addendum

The next day you hear that in a ritual in the Grand Temple of the Old Kerk in Schwartzenbruin, the Voorman Orgus Bildgear, before the assembled Pfaltzgrafs and Grafs of Perrenland, has torn up the non-aggression pact with Iuz. Moreover, he has taken the shreds and burned them in the holy fires of retribution in the shrine of Vathris, declaring a war of Null Kopkris (“no mercy”).

Bildgear’s words were:
“A Voorman dead, a nation deceived, regicide will be avenged and Perrenand will make a stand against evil and tyranny. We can stand idle no more as the world falls around us. Perrenders, I declare a state of war, and I call upon the Pax to comply with its ancient oath.”

The Divination of Kelanen

“Woe be to you and the city you’re in,
Should the girdle be taken away from a bear;
The Schwartzenbruin’s guard is the best it can be,
The city, the girdle, are safe in its care.”

Set in the Mounds of Dawn and the Plane of Shadows

Still plagued by the nightmares you first had last week (in A Man With Nothing), you were summoned by Karla Hussen and Hasten Weisspeer to to join a a secret expedition to Kir Russ, the ruined city you explored in Promises to Keep (and the location of a certain unexplored tunnel that Jarik has been obsessing over ever since). But before you left, Hanne had an extended version of the nightmare, which ended with an image of a dolmen (standing stone) on a hill in the Mounds of Dawn. Hanne and Karla were sure you would receive some sort of insight by visiting the dolmen in the flesh, and perhaps even learn the fate of Voorman Karenin Weispeer, who has been missing since the the destruction of the Schwarzenbruin council chamber in Tinderbox.

So you and Hanne left immediately for the Mounds of Dawn. There, you met the Keeper, a druid who guided you over rolling hills to a corn field. In the distance, you could see the hill (and the dolmen at its summit) that Hanne saw in her dream, but unfortunately, you arrived at a bad time. The sun was setting, and you found the field between you and the hill swarming with shadows coming up out of the field. A race to the hill ensued; Brottor discovered that shadows can fly as high as eagles can, Kendrick discovered that turning two shadows doesn’t help much with the other thousand, and Jarik discovered once again that full plate isn’t much protection against shadows. With some well-timed spells from Illene, however, the entire party and Hanne managed to make it to to dolmen.

Safe from the shadows below, you all fell asleep, and awoke (without Hanne) on the top of a Ziggurat in the Plane of Shadows, where everything but you appeared to be in black and white, and where time seemed to flow unpredictably fast. A minotaur was sacrificing lizard folk and dwarves in an evil ritual that you immediately interrupted. You prevailed against the Minotaur, but not before Jarik realized that taking a blow to the head from an angry minotaur’s axe really hurts.

You freed the only remaining sacrificial victim, a dwarf named Gurezh of the Khund. He led you across a warped version of Perrenland to the temple where the mother of all witches, Igg-Vurz, makes her lair. Gurezh hastily gave us the secret ritual to safely enter the back door and then vanished. But Kendrick decided to bite the statue’s right ear instead of her left and just managed to avoid being slain by an illusory phantom. Entering the stronghold, you found Hanne, her pregnancy far advanced, and the Voorman, who was enchanted somehow. After a few minutes of talking got you nowhere, Hanne made a desperate attempt to reach her father, which temporarily broke his enchantment. The Voorman ordered you to kill him and to under no circumstances bring him back to Perrenland, which he said was part of the witch’s evil plot. After agonizing over the decision, and when even Hanne’s tears could not dissuade you or the Voorman, Kendrick reluctantly granted Karenin’s last request.

Before his death, the Voorman told you of a portal back to the material plane. You wisely decided to high-tail it to the portal instead of venturing further into the temple, but you emerged not in Perrenland but back atop the Ziggurat, where you battled Igg-Vurz herself—-just as Hanne went into labor. The witch turned out to be really annoying, nearly killing Illene with an acid ball, fighting off the many creatures Brottor summoned, and convincing Jarik that he really needed to help deliver Hanne’s baby before fighting, even though Jarik knew so little about the process that he thought it could be done in six seconds. Kendrick and Brottor bravely fought the witch and bore the brunt of her wrath, and in the end you defeated her.

Following the battle, you were all returned to the dolem in the Mounds of Dawn. You brought back the Voorman’s head, but the local priests announced that he would not be returning from the dead. A somber funeral was held and Bildgear was sworn in as Voorman. As you were all about to go your separate ways, Jarik received a letter from Hasten, which revealed his suspicions that Bildgear may secretly be an enemy of the state. He feared that Bildgear might attempt to steal the Girdle of Dian in Schwarzenbruin, a powerful artifact which, to Brottor’s annoyance, prevents anyone nearby from summoning creatures. He asked that you discreetly move the girdle to a safer location, and you agreed to look into it…

XP: 875 for Jarik, 1155 for Kendrick, Brottor and Illene
GP: You managed to sell off the minotaur’s armor for scrap, for 800 gp
Loot:

Part three of "For The Greater Good", set in Mitrik and Downfall, Veluna

It all started with a dream, one that seems to be plaguing all of Perrenland. Across a clear pool of water, you see a white bird flying. All around, the darkness of a great cavern looms threateningly. As you watch, the water in the pool begins to swirl as from its centre, a deep crimson stain begins to spread, staining the water the colour of blood. Suddenly, the bird stops in midair, and falling, it plummets towards the maelstrom of blood that the pool has become. Just before the bird strikes the water, you awaken. In the distance, the rumble of thunder sounds like the booming of some dark god’s laughter.

Kendrik, on the other hand, was having visions of Mitrik. Something was to be done there, and so the party headed to Mitrik, in Veluna. Once there, it started out innocently enough – some teenage lout was being arrested for graffitiing the walls. However, the graffiti was strange – it matched some of Kendrik’s tats. Before much investigation could be done, the party ran into Zelt Damascus, one of the previous bearers of one of Kendrik’s curses. He said that he had been working to try and hunt down the last priest who had betrayed the ritual of the Flight of Fiends. The graffiti had been going on for about a week – and seemed to be calling the curses to a place called Downfall. Would the party like to join him on the way there?

Heading towards Downfall, it turned out to he a huge cliff with a river running down it. Except, the river was dried out. Jarik looked around and found a tunnel, and the party followed the tunnel through to a portal. There were some ogres and a giant guarding the portal, but they fell easily. The portal opened when Kendrik got too close – and the Medallion of Dis melted in his pocket and turned into smoke.

The portal led to a strange place – a huge statue of Aaront, overlooking the town of Mitrik in pale red stone. The town was very quiet though. Beneath the statue was the Grand Temple of Mitrik, which looked really similar to the one you had seen previously in your dream-vision, back when you first met Aaront. Inside the temple in the main chamber, there were six panels of murals, and floating up near the domed top, a vortex of reddish mist. The panels were as follows:

Shows the making of medallions in the temple of blood. “The making of our prison started with good intentions and without bars.”

Shows the ritual of the flight of fiends. Three priests in particular are well detailed – the betrayers. “The weak willed were easily bent to our use but the Crook had other plans.”

The ritual gone wrong. In the centre is a normal looking man with a very evil grin on his face and a tail snaking behind his back. It has a line drawn down the middle of him, dividing him in two. A demonic image is stretched to the right, a human image stretched to the left. “The being of what we are and always have been is no more. Our vessels shall be returned.”

The stretched fiendish image from panel 3 is shown, swirling into a vast vortex of red mist with many such other images. “Our prison complete, we wait for the sheep to wander in to be reclaimed.”

This panel is huge. It shows 303 human figures. next to each one is a line connecting it to a fiendish figure. Below each one is a symbol. The symbols match those of the tattoos. One of the pairs is missing a demonic image; it corresponds to a tattoo that does not glow on Kendrik’s body. “Our Lord and Master is outside the bounds of all that is. His freedom ensures our existence.”

This panel is mostly blank. On one side is an image you recognise as Theron. On the other side, are pictures of Brottor, Kendrik, Jarik and Gildon.

Wandering out to talk to the people of this place, you learnt that there are 303 people. They just awoke here a number of years ago, with no memories. Every time somebody wanders into the temple, a devil comes out and tries to slaughter as many people as possible. That person then reappears with a blank memory, the next day. You went to talk to the leader, Sarid, who said that there was another outsider around. Each person has a symbol on their forehead – Sarid’s is that of Theron. Sarid expressed a desire to leave this place, but no knowledge of how to. At this point, somebody reported that some people had entered the temple – and we must go to fight the devils that will thus be created.

You went into the temple, to see three villagers being united with the red mist, and turned into devils. You fought the devils, and as each one died, they turned back into red mist again. After killing the devils, you were approached by Ra’Ned, the final priest of Rao. He had Aaront with him. He told you that Aaront was his son. And yes, he bears the third curse. He told you that this is the demiplane of Perdition, and it is not supposed to exist. But, it can still serve its purpose. The people here are innocent – the human halves of half-fiends trapped here when the Flight of Fiends was performed. There are 303 of them. However, there are only 302 fiends here, and so one fiend has escaped to the Material Plane to wreak havoc – Theron.

Ra’Ned proposed that you call Theron to here, by channeling energy into his tattoo on the Prime. Then, defeat him there, drag him into Perdition, and kill him there properly, so that he could join the other fiends trapped within. Afterwards, Ra’Ned would take all the tattoos, and you could lead the innocents out of Perdition. Ra’Ned would stay within Perdition until his penance with Rao or his mortal life was over, whichever came first, thus sealing the plane. This happened so, and you led the innocents back into Downfall. Once through the portal, you saw that it was reverting to the Elemental Plane of Water, and were flushed out into the basin.

Perhaps this is the end of the tale. Should Ra’Ned stay in Perdition, the fiends will be trapped in there with him. Hopefully, you never hear from him again…

Set in Schwartzenbruin

It started, as all good tales do, in a tavern. This particular tavern was called The Latern, located in Schwartzenbruin. Bad weather combined with a lost Voorman made for poor spirits, but the bard this evening seemed to be keeping the smiles and the ale flowing this evening. Indeed, she has even painted you as heroes of Perrenland, and the drinks had been flowing freely your way. However, after a new round of drinks are ordered, the bard jumped on the patron, claiming he wasn’t drunk enough and should drink to preserve his honour. The man, first turning red, then looking worried, discards his ale and smashes out a window onto the street and into the night. The wood where his drink spilt began smoking, belying its poisonous nature.

After the assassination attempt, the bard introduced herself to you as Jemmeny Moonsong, and revealed that this evening, she was employed to keep you alive. She invited you to come to a meeting with her employer, stating that a number of people wanted you dead tonight. At the meetingplace, you met with a mysterious figure who introduced themselves only as “The Het”. They said that you had a benefactor who had paid handsomely for you to remain alive this evening, and brought to a ship in the harbour. Meanwhile, a ruse would be set up to make it look like you were dead.

Creeping out of the city through the undertunnels, you were eventually rowed to a ship in the harbour. On the ship, you were met by Ingolt Weisspeer and none other than Karla Hussen, Karl Hussen’s mother. They informed you that your current ship was chasing another ship, which carried Hanne Weisspeer and Karl Hussen, and hopefully, the souls of Hasten, Gutherie and Karenin. You were informed of your mission – in the melee, make your way to the hold of the ship, and capture Karl and Hanne. It was believed that some dread ritual was underway on board the ship – you must stop it if you can.

Soon, the ship was pulling alongside its quarry, and you saw that it had been beset by a huge fire elemental, causing the sails to fan up in flames. You met minimal opposition on the deck, and quickly headed beneath decks. You ran into some cultists of Tharizdun, and after dispatching them, made your way to the hold. Down there, you saw Karl and Hanne, as well as a man you may not have remembered, but on further reflection, you realised that you’d seen him before. The strange priest of the unmaker was almost certainly with Karl the first time you met him, when he captured you at the ruins of Kir Russ. He held a strange rod with which he seemed to maintain control over Karl and Hanne. On the floor was drawn a magical circle, with two black gems on a cloth inside.

A brief battle ensued, and just when it appeared that the priest was getting the upper hand, Karla appeared, and struck the controlling rod with her own, causing the magic in it to fizzle and vanish. Hanne fainted, and the priest screamed out “Interfering hag!”, and swung out at Karla. Karl interposed himself though, and the rod delivered a resounding blow to his head. The priest cursed you all to the abyss, muttered a word, and vanished. Karl looked up at his mother, and said “I am sorry mother, I have failed you all, I could not match him. Beware… Sepia a folly… watch the…” and died.

The two soul gems were recovered, and turned out to be those of Gutherie and Hasten, who could now be raised from the dead. Hanne, in a full confession, told a sorry tale of the dominance of Karl and herself at the hands of Brar, priest of Tharizdun the Unmaker, who answered to one called the “Crimson One”. She admitted to being involved in blowing up the council, but has no knowledge of where her father is. She suspects that Brar fled back to Kir Russ, where she and Karl were first placed under his thrall. For now, she is in the care of Karla.

Hasten turned to you, and asked, “So, how good are you at exploring subterranean complexes?”

XP: +1350 XP to Brottor, Illene and Jarik
GP: 2020 gp was your net from this adventure.
Items to purchase: If you wish to purchase a Cloak of Resistance +2 or a Brooch of Shielding, these items are available.

Set in the Yatil Mountains

Upon hearing that your favourite hole in the ground, the ruins of Kir Russ, were under attack, you joined the Auszugen to fight against an approaching army of undead. The first wave you fought were skeletons and wraiths; the second wave, zombies. In the final rush, you were asked to take on the leader of the dread army herself, deep in the citadel of Kir Russ. Inside, you found her, a red dragon in disguise, attempting to revive the dragon skeleton within. She had a bodak companion, a fearsome undead creature who caused lesser souls to die simply by meeting its gaze. In this manner, Illene fell. As Jarik slew the bodak, and the dragon complained “Why do I have to do everything myself?”, a shimmering appeared in the air, and the face of an old hag complained to the dragon that it had failed her for the last time, and with a word of eldritch power, the dragon died. The words to the party were “Tell your puny masters that I have returned to reclaim that which is mine!”. Fortunately, the dragon was using an Elixir of Life to revive her mate, and since she didn’t need it anymore, it could be used for Illene. For finding the bodies of the lost group of archaeologists, the archaeologist’s guild rewarded you with some of the items that they had found.

Set in Folly

Version for Kris and Sergei:
Having been abandoned by Kendrik, Gildon, and Brottor, it was decided that a shopping trip to Greyhawk City was in order. Jarik and Illene travelled to the Gem of the Flanaess, went shopping, and came home.

Version for Geoffrey and Greg:
Arriving in Greyhawk City, you found an advertisement wanting adventures, and applied. The Heironean paladin Sir Lebarat Tirien wanted your assistance in recovering a friend from his own potential undoings in the town of Folly, a place created by the mad archmage Zagig, still a human, to express his eccentricities. Now ascended to godhood, Zagyg’s high priest, Entropimus (or E~ as he prefers to be known), had set out to explore Folly. You travelled to Folly by means of a planar shifting spell, via a brief stopover in the Astral plane.

The town of Folly was just downright weird. It did indeed look like the plaything of a madman. However, as you started exploring it, your awareness was removed from your minds, and placed in another’s body. This didn’t happen just to you; apparently it happened to Entropimus and Lebarat too, and where once stood a man of noble bearing, now was a deranged madman. After some discussion, you convinced Entropimus to go and find his old body, which was in a whirlwind building, pieces of rooms scattered throughout a living tornado.

The first major room you came to looked like a cross, but as you stepped foot on it, it folded up with directional gravity, and you were placed on different faces. Furthermore, a number of gingwatzim were summoned, leading you to a fight. Of course, the GM forgot about the weird DR that these creatures had (DR 10/subdual), and so you beat them easily, although Illene’s body was completely drained of strength, and even Jarik’s body came out of the ordeal feeling weak. The cube unfolded again, and three things appeared. A chest, a lever, and the number 175. The chest had an odd poem on it, an Ode to a Gingwatzim, which read like a riddle, but you never quite cracked it. The lever had an “on” position and an “off” position; it was off, you turned it on.

The next room you came to was a funny room of blackness and whiteness, with various columns strewn about the place. In the white area, the columns rose and fell randomly as you jumped on them, and the place seemed to be infused with positive energy. The black area was separated from the white area by a wall of force. Eventually, following E~’s suggestion, you went under the wall of force, and the areas of positive and negative energy cancelled each other. Searching in the now only dark area, you found another number. There was a lever here as well.

The next room was a gutted spiral staircase, with a control panel, which you quickly figured out could move the rooms in the whirlwind around. You moved on before playing with it too much though.

The next room was a tower, where Lebarat was waiting patiently inside Entropimus’s body. There was a lever here too, but you couldn’t find any numbers.

The next room was an inverted pyramid with piles of junk. As you were searching through the piles of junk for the associated number and lever, you were attacked by a bunch of wacky constructs. Feeling somewhat akin to the constructs, Entropimus decided to give them a hand, and hindered you in your fight. You eventually found the lever and number associated with this platform.

The final room, up near the very top of the whirlwind, was a doughnut with outward directional gravity. Inside, it was a museum, of all sorts of odds and ends. Illene’s favourite was the apparatus of Kwalish, although there were all sorts of random things here. Although there was a lever here too, you couldn’t find the associated number. There was a box of odds and ends that Entropimus went through, and eventually he pulled out a couple of items for you – a Collar of Tusmit, and a Golembane Scarab.

You went back to the control room, and solving a simple puzzle there, figured out what the two missing numbers must be, although which one was which wasn’t certain, but that ended up not mattering. Bringing the central structure back together, your consciousnesses floated back to their own bodies, and Lebarat declared it was time to go. Entropimus wasn’t too pleased, but Lebarat told you to grab him, and teleported away all four of you.

Back in Greyhawk City, Entropimus danced a little jig and vanished, while Lebarat sighed, paid you your dues, and headed off to find Entropimus again.

Set in the Lands of Iuz

While Brottor went to the wild to summon the Buckinator, the rest of you were hired by a merchant to guard their caravan on a journey to Needlebough, near the border between the Empire of Iuz and the Shield Lands. Jaedric and Halon, his bodyguard, were rather glum company, and it rained continuously on the journey. Close to Needlebough, Jaedric wanted to push on through the night in order to get a hot meal and a warm bed. Halon was not so sure, and his reluctance was understandable when the wagon hit a rut and broke the axle. You spent another unpleasant night, and hoped to get on to Needlebough the next day.

The rain let up for what seemed the first time in weeks the next morning, and although it was foggy and grey, the four of you trudged on to Needlebough in order to purchase a new axle. Jaedric and Halon stayed behind with the wagon. Arriving in Needlebough, you found a scene of devastation. In the middle of the small hamlet, nailed to a post, was a dead elf. Attached to him was a parchment, from which a magical mouth appeared, warning you that death had come to this village, stay at your own peril.

In the village were a number of buildings. One was a house, burnt to cinders. Another was a temple, you determined of Farlanghan and Trithereon; a holy symbol to each remained in their own piles of fine ash. On the altar in the temple was what appeared to by a dead young child eunuch with milky red eyes, greyish skin, and leathery black wings. A magical band was around its neck. None of you were sure what this thing was. The wagoner’s shop had a man frozen in horror, made completely out of ash. Being careful not to touch him, you found a wagon axle and moved on. Another building was an inn. Inside, a longsword was stuck in the ground, and a white apron covered another pile of ash. You found nothing alive in the inn, but you did recover a finely made silvered dagger. Another building was the general store, which appeared to be devoid of life, but fully stocked, except for thunderstones. Some of you thought that you could loot some stuff from here, but a dwarven ghost appeared as you tried to exit, and demanded payment. You chatted to the ghost for a bit, trying to convince him that he was dead, but to little avail.

There were two other locations of interest in the town. The first was a track leading out of town, and the second was a smouldering pile of wood. You decided to investigate the pile of wood first. You spied three dead bodies in the pile here, and as Kendrik moved closer to inspect them, his eyes locked with a glowing pair of red eyes, and he turned to stone. Fortunately for the rest of you, you managed to slay the basilisk there without any other casualties. You decided to head back to the wagon to see if the merchants had something to fix the “turned to stone” condition, dragging Kendrik along with you, but leaving the axle behind (as collateral). You were fortunate that the merchants did indeed have a scroll of Break Enchantment, which restored Kendrik, and then you headed back to the hamlet to fetch the axle and explore the track. Down the track, you found a semi-insane man called Fischer, a trapper, who had somehow survived the attack on the village, through the use of thunderstones and holy water, he claimed. You headed back to the town, grabbed the axle, and went back to the wagon, delivering your report on the situation to Jaedric and Halon, and convinced them to turn around and leave. They agreed to do so, departing the next day, for it was already late at that point.

That night, however, you were attacked by two men. Luckily, Kendrik had the willpower to withstand their sleep arrows, at least, the first two, and raised the alarm. Dealing with the would be murderers, you found that one of them had a map to the secret lair. In the morning, you trudged off to find it.

At the secret lair, little more than a hovel in a hillside, you found two rooms. One had cages and a pair of bedrolls. Gildon managed to find a secret compartment containing a spellbook. In the other room, was a folding table, chair, bedroll, and chest. Gildon searched the chest for traps before opening it, but it still exploded in his face, and the papers that were inside became ash instantly. All that remained of value in the chest were a few coins.

Heading back to the wagon, you came across Jaedric, Halon and Fischer tied to the wheels, being interrogated by a wizard. As you approached, two children with milky red eyes and black leathery wings, wreathed in flames stepped out to attack you. Sitting on -9 hitpoints became a popular holiday spot, but eventually you prevailed. Fischer wanted to stay in his village, and so you, along with Jaedric and Halon, headed back to Rookroost (large town in the area).

After a final meal together, Jaedric finally dropped his persona, and admitted that the Shade had recommended you, and offered thanks from that elusive “organisation”. As thanks, he left three wooden chips on the table. At this point, you suspect you may have seen some of the creatures that Felkas informed you about, after your foray close to Dorakaa.

Set in Traft

Travelling from Drell’s cave in the Clatspurs, you wended your way back to the city of Traft. Arriving through the city gates in the morning, you were greeted by the sight of a man in the stocks, a proclamation ongoing that despite being a revered member of the clergy, he was to be hung that evening for the murder of an aristocrat girl. Such is the kopprijs for his deed.

Talking to him, he implored you to investigate something strange about a relic his church received, which he believes possessed him and forced him to commit the crime. Agreeing to go looking, you headed off to the temple of Rao.

Along the way, you were attacked by an assassin, who unsuccessfully attempted to murder Jarik. At the temple of Rao itself, you talked to the man’s assistant. While being told about the relic, tiger nomads burst into the temple and killed him. It appears that you have started dabbling in something that somebody did not want you to. However, you had a lead on a furniture shop, called the Bottomless Haversack, and so you headed there next.

At the Bottomless Haversack, you encountered Birkie Blabbermouth, who didn’t want to speak to you. That is, while his tiger nomad buddies were in the shop with him. Afterwards, however, he blurted that all the furniture was coming from a warehouse and here it is and please don’t hurt him.

A short jaunt and an obligatory thug attack later, and you had arrived at the warehouse. Inside were a pack of rasts which you dealt with handily. There didn’t seem to be much here, but an elevator leading underground…

… which lead to a white dragon. Glacialismagnificus, as he introduced himself, monologued that Panshazek of the Boneheart had sent him to Traft to oversee the distribution of once-holy relics tainted by the Old One. He mentioned something about a Crook bringing Old Wicked low, but you’re not exactly sure what that was all about. Regardless, he almost wiped the floor with you (or perhaps he did wipe you with the floor?), and it was only for the intervention of Moradin that you survived.

Stacked up the back was a bunch of furniture, and hidden amongst it were the tainted relics. Racing back to save a man’s life, bringing evidence of a chromatic dragon, no less, you convinced the Watch Detective to spare the priest’s life. Afterwards, the acting Voorman, Bildgear, announced that Perrenland was going to send troops to Vesbergen to prepare for the annulment of the pact of neutrality with Iuz.

Set in the Clatspur Mountains

You began in Verbeeg Hill, a town bordering the Vesve forest, having safely returned from the lands of Iuz. The rumourmill was hard at work today, with news that a giant stone man had waltzed into town, plucked out an accused tax cheat from the city court, stuffed him in a sack, and left town again. Knowing that rumours can get out of hand, you went to investigate the city court for yourself. At the court, the old bailiff begged you to see if you could recapture the escaped criminal. None of those present looked like they were keen to go chasing after a giant. Thus, you ended up following the giant’s tracks out of town. Along the way, you came across a couple of hill giants with their direwolf puppy.

At the end of the day, you came across a gnomish settlement. They weren’t all that pleased to see you, and seemed to be covering for the giant in some way. Ignoring them, you trundled on through. The next day, you arrived at the giant’s cave, and he invited you in to talk. It turns out that Drell, the stone giant, has a maths problem in the back of his cave, and its been interrupting his meditations, because he doesn’t know how to solve it. Thus, he borrowed Cullen Gregor, an accountant renowned for his skill with numbers, to solve it. The puzzle appeared to be a maths problem, but before you could deal look into it too closely, a loud voice challenged Drell, who went outside to see what was the matter. Another stone giant was intent on murdering the peaceful giant, and so you went out to defend Drell. After some difficulty, the stone giant fell, and you returned to look at the puzzle. It appeared that Cullen had vanished, but had left annotations on the puzzle enough to figure out that it was a riddle. Solving it, you were pulled through the wall to a secret complex.

Inside the complex, there were five rooms, each with strange magical runes crawling all over them. An entranceway, a pantry, a kitchen, a bedroom, and a laboratory. It was in the laboratory that you found a grotesque creature made from the bodies of gnomes sewn together. It was in the process of killing Cullen, but was somewhat interrupted by your appearance. After doing battle with the flesh golem, you investigated the laboratory and found a magical helmet. Leaving the strange place by the same way you came, you found the gnomes from the village chatting to Drell outside. You decided to let Cullen go, and he promised that he had friends around the Flanaess whose help might be useful to the party.

Leaving, you continued on over the Clatspurs to Traft, where the next adventure will begin.

Set in the Lands of Iuz

You started out in Traft, where you were approached and asked to consider undertaking a mission of immense danger in the lands of the Old One. You travelled to Redoubt, a border garrison in Furyondy, in order to meet with an enigmatic person known only as “The Shade.”
(see here for the location of Redoubt – it’s just South of Crockport on the Northern border of Furyondy).

In Redoubt, you were met by the Shade late at night. She told you that she worked for an organisation devoted to bringing about the fall of the Old One. They had an operative inside Dorakaa who needed help escaping the town, and you were requested to rendezvous with them, and get them out of the land. Posing as crooked merchants, you were to approach the Northern outskirts of Dorakaa, rendezvous with Felkas there, and then get him out of Iuzian lands.

You began by meeting a grey olve, Bowsong, in the forests of the Vesve. He provided a wagon, complete with hidden compartment, and various goods. From there, you travelled into Iuzian lands.

Your first encounter with Iuzian forces was just past the border of the Vesve. You bribed a patrol to allow you safe passage through the lands. Your next encounter was an attack by a couple of ogres and worgs, along with a wizard. Ensuring that there were no survivors, you travelled onwards, looking for a place to rest for the evening, away from the site of the attack. You came across a hillock with a door and light, looking like somebody inhabited it, but wisely kept on moving.

Next, you came to the Dulsi river. Your intelligence was that there would be a ford there, but instead, you found a garrison defending a bridge. After making a fool of himself, you ended up paying a generous bridge toll, and kept on moving. Unbeknownst to you, you were followed by a quasit here, who figured you couldn’t possibly be who you said you were (or as dumb as you looked).

The next few day were quiet, as you trundled across the Desolate Plains, heading towards Dorakaa. On the third day of the monotony, a roiling storm in the form of a skull engulfed you, and you did battle with incorporeal undead. It was here that Kendrik learned that he can actually turn undead.

Rolling along further, you made it to the outskirts of Dorakaa. Here, you waited for your contact to show up, and pretended to be undertaking wheel repairs in the meantime. After a couple of hours, Felkas showed up, but was being pursued by a team of Iuzians. Here, the quasit chose to reveal itself, and joined the attackers. You managed to defeat most of the Iuzians, but the quasit got away, and will undoubtedly report to his fell masters in the Old One’s city.

After the attack, you hid Felkas in the secret compartment, and retreated from the Old One’s lands as fast as possible. A few days later, and you were back in the Highfolk town of Verbeeg Hill. Here, Felkas told you of what he had found – abominations wreathed in flames, made from the flesh of the dead, and with deadly powers. The Shade gratefully thanked you for your help, and turned you on your way. There will be more to this, you are sure.

XP: 1200 each. Jarik levels to 7, the rest of you are still at least two adventures away (depending on how generous I’m feeling).
GP: 1080 from direct sales of the proceeds of crime.

Set in the Valley of Kershane

Tensions in Schwarztenbruin are high, and somehow, you’ve managed to be involved with many of the incidents that have sparked the fires, quite literally in one case. The acting Pfaltzgraf of the Weisspeers, Greta Vosser-Weisspeer (Hasten’s widow), asked you to investigate rumours of conflict between the Roodbergs and the Weisspeer allies, the Vossers, in the Kershane Pass. Although a unit of the 6th Auszugen has been dispatched to the area to act as peacekeepers, Greta suspects that there is something more sinister unfolding.

Travelling along the Kershanetrek, you met a travelling band of Vossers, who introduced themselves as members of the Fellkatz Vosser sept. They informed you that Twin Bridges, the town which straddles the Kershane River, is a Roodberg stronghold, and knowing that they would not be welcome there, they were planning on travelling around. They said that the Roodbergs were claiming territorial rights and levying ridiculous taxes upon the Vossers, who had finally refused to pay, thus precipitating the current conflict. Despite their warnings, you headed into Twin Bridges. Although not particularly welcome, you were permitted to pass through the town, which seemed to be swelling with a muster of Roodenhund warriors (a sept of the Roodberg clan). You passed on quickly through.

On the other side of Twin Bridges, you came across a battle site, where a number of Auszugen soldiers lay dead, as well as some goblins and hobgoblins. You also found the bodies of the Vosser party you met previously, along with a wary vosserkatz. There seemed to be a warband of goblinoids roaming around, and you decided to follow their tracks.

You were soon met by a Ravenlord, half elf half nymph, who had evidently spent too much time as a bird for the past thousand years. Seeking revenge on the goblinoids for their desecration of her part of the forest, she enlisted your aid. First, however, you needed to escape the incoming forces who were searching for you, which is where you found your first indication that the Roodbergs were for at least some part, working as agents of Hextor (big bad lawful evil deity, google him :-) and with the goblins. The Ravenlord led you to a safe area, which she revealed as the ancient Valley of Kershane, a city of Grey Olves which had been locked away in time for countless years. She explained that the goblinoids were the Guurhok, the ancestral enemies of the Kershane, and it was little surprise that they had been stirred up at the same time.

After a night’s rest, the Ravenlord led you do a battle in the woods, between the Roodenhund warband, their goblinoid allies, and the Fellkatz Vossers who had fled from the region. Guided through the mists by the Ravenlord, you were led to the leader of the Roodenhunds, the Obstergraf of the Sept, known as the “Pfaltzgraf’s Fury”, and there you did battle, albeit somewhat briefly.

With the death of the Fury and his revelation as an agent of Hextor, the Roodenhund and Guurhok warbands routed, and you were celebrated by the Fellkatz Vossers, as well as a squad of Grey Olven rangers, who had come to the aid of their old Vosser allies.

Leaving the Kershane pass, you met with a unit of the 1st Auszugen escorting acting Voormann Orgus Bildgear himself, who thanked you for helping to prevent the slaughter of the Fellkatz Vossers at the hands of the Roodenhunds. As a Roodberg himself, you wondered if perhaps Bidlgear knew what his kinsmen were up to.

Part two of "For The Greater Good", set in the Lands of Iuz

The adventure began with Kendrik receiving strange dreams, luring him to Critwall, in the Shield Lands. In Critwall, you came across droves of refugees from Rishvian, just over the Veng river, who had been displaced by a Priestess of Iuz taking people as slaves. You decided to investigate. Just outside the now ghost town of Rishvian, you saw that a temple was being excavated. Here, you were found by a group of Knights of Rao (The Reasoned One, which is what I was trying to remember today ;-), who were planning an assault on the temple. Rojan Arden was the leader of the knights, and he planned to attack at dawn.

Zelt Damascus sought you out at their camp, and Kendrik in particular. It turned out he had another tattoo curse, similar to Kendrik’s. He said that he had received the curse when his father died. His research indicated that three medallions bore the curses, and they were made in the temple here somehow. He thought that the curse might be undone inside the temple. The child Aaront was there with him also, who seems to be somehow related to the curses. Zelt proposed infiltrating the temple from the back entrance, and making your way to the altar of blood, in order to try and remove the curses.

Before entering the temple, Zelt asked if Kendrik would take his curse, as he didn’t want it to pass onto his young child should he die. Kendrik agreed, and Zelt gave him his father’s ring, as well as his curse. You stormed the rear entrance, and made your way to the altar of blood. There, you were attacked by a blood golem, but you dispatched of it fairly quickly. Zelt placed Aaront on the altar, and bade Kendrik drop three drops of blood on his forehead. Alas, this did not remove the curses, but instead released the demon Theron who had been trapped within Aaront. Zelt attempted to take the curse back from Kendrik, but could not succeed.

At this point, you were distracted by the assault of the knights on the temple, but arrived too late to join the fray. As the knights freed the slaves and started leading them to safety, you looked at the temple again. Aaront magically cured Zelt of the ailments of the curse, and then pointed out that the bad lady was getting away, she was over there – and she’d made more medallions. You pursued, but she planeshifted away, leaving only her cronies, which you dealt with summarily.

Aaront started following Kendrik, but realising he wasn’t welcome, vanished, saying there was a third for him to follow.

Looking back on your latest escapade, you understand that Zelt’s father was the second of the priests who corrupted the original ritual you saw in the vision, probably by using a Medallion of Dis. Given that the temple in which these medallions were created lies in the realm of Old Wicked, perhaps Iuz has something to do with the original betrayal. Perhaps you might find out more about what the ritual was for somehow?

XP: 840 to Brottor, 1200 to everyone else.
GP: 4680gp is the spoils of battle!

Set in the Sepia Uplands

Traipsing up to Schwunglestadt in search of adventure, you responded to a notice posted at the temple of Zilchus who wanted an escort for a geological survey. Brother Shekem hired you to escort Trennan while he performed his job in a nearby mine. Inside the mine, you found a bunch of what appeared to be dissident Zilchans plotting to raid caravans, and dispatched of them handily. A little further into the mine, you found a vein of mithril, being eaten by rust monsters. After some (understandable) fear of losing valuable equipment, you eventually killed the rust monsters. Following a little further in, you became trapped in the mine by an earthquake. To your left, you found an old temple of Ulaa guarded by a simple riddle, and therein, the ghost paladin Sir Delanit bade you to recover the lost Hammer of Ulaa.

Heading back to find Solrina, you encountered a pair of incorporeals, including your first spectre. Routed, you regrouped, and came back for vengeance the next day. Giddy with victory, you charged on to find the witch Solrina, and discovered that although imprisoned for centuries, her magical powers were still strong. Regardless, you eventually defeated her after a protracted battle, and recovered the hammer. In reward, Sir Delanit offered to enchant a magical weapon to flaming, and Brother Shekem offered a discounted mithril item for assisting in locating the vein.

Set in the Nation of Khundholm

Journeying back to Khundholm to help clear out the tunnels, your adventure started with a drunken party. The party didn’t last long, however – soon, news that Moradin’s forge was under attack filtered through, and you joined the call to arms. As part of the dwarven warband, your first assignment was to help dispatch some fire giants. The party soon learned that fire giants are tough bastards, even without their weapons, as Brottor was slain. A dwarven cleric was thankfully present to raise Brottor from the dead, although such magic comes at a cost.

Journeying onwards to rejoin the warband, you came across a carriage being driven at reckless speed by some derro. The wagon careened and crashed into the wall, and the derro opened fire. They were easily dealt with. However, inside the carriage, there lurked an explosive device of some sort – the part got out of the way just in time to avoid the huge explosion.

As you drew close to Moradin’s Forge, you met with some Azers, who gave you some information on the forge and the history of the Khund and derro. They were just there on a pilgrimage to the forge, however, and didn’t want to intervene. In the forge itself, a number of fire giants lay dead, but a variety of derro were engaged in battle against the Khund. Baradon himself was holding a bridge against them, although he looked to be being picked off by a derro sorcerer. You engaged the sorcerer, and after taking him out, the tide swung in the favour of the Khund, and the derro were soon routed.

In gratitude for your help in the defense of the forge, you were presented with an Adamantine Dwarven Waraxe.

XP: Brottor died and went back to 12500 XP, then gained 1500 xp for the adventure. Illene gained 1500 xp for the adventure, and Jarik gained 1200 xp.

Loot:

Adamantine Dwarven Waraxe

All other loot sold, including some magic items, in order to pay for raise dead. Net loss from adventure: 1448 gp

Set in Exag and the Yatil Mountains

You were requested to investigate a suspicious death in the city of Exag. Following a variety of leads, you quickly decided that the Obstergraf Frau Glassen was almost certainly involved. Part of your investigations led you to the Den Zauber guild, which Illene was invited to join. Eventually, you decided that a break and enter plan was required, but were sidetracked by the hasty exit of a group of people from nearby stables. Giving chase, they led you to an ogre slaver band, and then a slave camp. Liberating the slaves, you took a peek inside the cave in the Yatil mountains that they were building a fort around, and discovered something of dwarven origin.

Heading into the complex, you discovered a whole labyrinth of caverns and tunnels, with directions carefully labelled in chalk. However, off in a side tunnel, you heard a heard sounds which turned out to be Derro torturing a pair of dwarves. Dispatching with the derro, you found that the dwarves were part of a royal lineage, who had come to reclaim their birthright. However, a curse was preventing them, and all dwarves, from doing so. It was Kendrik who blew the great horn that shattered the curse, and in doing so, was bestowed upon with the Blessing of Moradin.

The next morning, dwarves from all walks of life were beginning to gather in the halls of ancient Khundholm, and you set about chasing your original quarry. You eventually caught up with them in a geothermal valley, but alas, Frau Glaussen and the Den Zauber wizard implicated in the crimes teleported away, leaving only a pair of archers to deal with (and they quickly were). You recovered papers implicating Frau Glaussen in the murder, and headed back to Exag with the information. The Obstergraf was arrested, but the location of her wizard accomplice is unknown.

Set in the Land of the Frost Barbarians

You were relaxing in a dockside tavern in Schwartzenbruin, enjoying hot chocolade that the kinder of Schwartzenbruin were shouting you to, when an odd person walked through the door. It wasa small kobold, wearing a beautiful purple cloak, carrying a staff with a dragon’s head carved into the top of it, and wearing a pink ribbon tied in a bow around her tail. She looked at you, decided you looked good enough for her purposes, and talked to you. Introducing herself as Conans the Barbarian, Mighty Sorceress and High Priestess of Azrinens, she said she wanted to hire you to travel to the Land of the Frost Barbarians to secure the trade rights to the legendary argentvorax furs. She said she’d give you her old Cloak of Charisma +2 as a reward. You were to talk to the Jarl of Jutgandgard to undertake the negotiations. She’d teleport you there, more or less, but you’d have to walk home. Kendrik asked for a token of favour to sweeten the negotiations, and Conans procured what she says was a magical holy symbol of Azrinens. One teleport error later, and you were on a beautiful tropical island. One more teleport later, and you were in the snow. Conans wished you good luck, and vanished.

You quickly came across the scene of a fight; a Frutzii (frost barbarian) was taking on two polar bears, who had already downed his companions. Defeating the polar bears (just), the Frutzii introduced himself as Charbel, and invited you to join him on his boat, sailing up to Jutgandgard. Arriving there, a feast was prepared to celebrate Charbel’s return, and you got an opportunity to talk to Endemuk, advisor to the Jarl. He said that the Jarl would award the trading rights to whoever defeated the spectral beasts that plagued his lands, but that there was already another party interested in it; a woman and some orcs. The next morning, you were accused of kidnapping the Jarl’s advisor, who had vanished. A ransom note was left for him. However, somebody had seen the abduction take place, and had followed the raiding party back to their camp, and offered to guide you there.

They were camping in a cave a few hours away. You easily dealt with the orcs, and even their wizard was no match for your prowess (although Jarik learnt about pit traps). Endemuk was quite pleased to be rescued, and the next day pointed you in the direction of the spectral beasts. It took a couple of days to find the beasts, but eventually you did, and you slaughtered them with ease. The Jarl was pleased, and offered you the trading rights, as well as a 400 gp bonus for saving his advisor. Charbel offered to represent the hunters of the argentvorax, and you negotiated a deal with him to Conans’s satisfaction.

Returning to Schwartzenbruin, carefully avoiding travel through Tenh, Conans was pleased with your efforts, and gave each of you with the Blessings of Azrinens.

Set in Schwartzenbruin

Hanging out in Schwartzenbruin, you were approached by a group of children, who wanted you to investigate the terrible disappearance of Herr Mordenkainen, who made chocolate for them all! They gave you a number of leads to investigate, including a rival gang of kids (upper class snobs), and other bakers in the baker’s guild, who had cause for complaint. You checked out the shop and house, but found them empty. The horse at the back of the house looked like it hadn’t been cared for in a few days, and it was very talkative. The neighbours hadn’t heard from Herr Mordenkainen in a few days either, and said that it was unusual for them to vanish without letting somebody know. One of the neighbours suggested talking to Mordeknainen’s wife’s family, who had a farm a few miles away, who might know something (and also had a spare key).

The relatives could tell you the truth about Mordenkainen, who worked as the chocolate maker for the Mordenkainen in his Obsidian Citadel for a while, but was now based in Schwartzenbruin. He had taken on his master’s name in honour of his former employer. They gave you a key which was enchanted to unlock the doors in the house.

Investigating the house, you decided to search it from top to bottom. You came across the chocolate golem (the shop’s assistant and heavy lifter), and the gelatine ooze (the household cleaner). It was in the basement that you found Herr Mordenkainen, being tortured by an imp. Unable to fool you that he was anything greater than he actually was, you squished him straightforwardly. Herr Mordenkainen’s wife was found in the attic, which none of you figured out how to open in your previous search.

Thankful for being rescued, Herr Mordenkainen presented you with 7 kg of chocolate, to the value of 750 gp. The decision was to keep a third, sell a third, and give the kids a third.

XP: 400 to Katinka, Brottor, and Jarik.

Loot:

250 gp of income from selling chocolate, and Brottor and Jarik both have a chunk of chocolate in their stash :-)

Set in the wastelands of Tenh

Having arrived safely back in Greyhawk City, you settled down to recuperate from your flight from Tenh. However, it wasn’t long before a man, Ungut, pleaded with you to journey back to Tenh with him to save his family, who were holed up in caves, stuck, and running out of food. After agreeing to help him, you were approached by another, who claimed to be an apprentice to a wizard at the Greyhawk wizards’ guild. He asked that you capture an Ether creature specimen so that his master could investigate them, and gave you a magical silver cage with which to do so.

You travelled by boat across the Nyr Dyv, and up the Artonsamay river. The land of Tenh, to the East of the river, was completely devoid of life, and strange occurrences cropped up, such as Jarik falling into an ethereal pool and becoming trapped on the ethereal plane. As you approached the caves where Ungut said his people were holed up, you were attacked by some more ether creatures.

The caves themselves were a strange affair, appearing to be ancient things carved out of a strange green stone. As you entered the caves, Jarik returned to the material plane. The caves held a number of women and children, as well as the enigmatic Wartoan, who kept on going on about the Dark One. The women and children were eager to leave, but Wartoan needed some convincing to let them, and even then, he wanted to stay behind. He had the following prophetic statements for you:

“And the two strong slaves lifted it from the back of the Beast. Thereupon I commanded the Brazen Portals to be brought low, and they were wrenched from their hinges and rang upon the stone. The Efreet howled in fear and fled when I caused the page to be read and the Beast passed into the City of Brass. Now was I, Tzunk, Master of the Plane of Molten Skies. With sure hand, I closed Yagrax’s Tome, dreading to…”

“I am not sure where Tzunk’s hands are, but in a dream, I saw a lone island in a sea of blue. It had buildings made of the same green stone as these walls, but there was no life on it. It sits alone for ages in the dark and the cold. Half in and half out of the dark waters that surrounded it, weighing down on it like death. It did not go with the others when they left. No, it stayed, stayed and guarded its burden. On it, a sword. A dark and terrible thing. It will lead you to him. Lead you to the Dark One. I hope that means something to you.”

When you left with the women and children, you were unmolested by the ether creatures, until you came to the river Artonsamay, where you saw a group of humans being chased by the ethers. You swiftly dealt with the critters, capturing one for the wizard back in Greyhawk. The soul surviving human turned out to be Ungut’s wife, although she was acting a little strangely. Illene soon spotted that she was magically compelled in some way, and together, you drove an etherleech from her body, and banished it back to its home plane. You then left Tenh, bound for Greyhawk once again.

Set in the lands of Tenh

Having met up with Katinka in a tavern in Schwartzenbruin, you travelled to the far-off land of Tenh, hoping to cash in on what seemed to be a lucrative black-opal trade. However, upon arriving in Vrennmii, you discover that it is well and truly under the occupation of the forces of Old Wicked. Strangely, all the resident demons apparently vanished about ten years ago, but nevertheless, the human (and orcish) occupation force rules with an iron fist. Of particular not was a mining camp to the West of the town, so you decided to go and check it out. However, on the way there, a strange event that signalled the beginning of an invasion of ether creatures occurred, and you were forced to race away from it, back towards the town.

In the town, you witnessed scenes of the buglike creatures eating whatever they could get their mandibles on, and whatever they ate, vanished. Avoiding engagement with the creatures as much as possible, you retreated to the one place in town where they would not pursue – the temple of Iuz. Inside the temple, you came across a priest of the Old One, Attlu, who said he knew of a way out of town, and should you work together, you might both live to escape this accursed place. He wanted to wait for the morning, however, as night would probably prove too dangerous. His slave visited you in the middle of the night.

The next day, you ran for the central tower of the city, which purportedly housed a teleportation circle or device. You battled some ether creatures along the way. Inside the tower, Attlu guided you to a secret door leading to the basement beneath, which had apparently been used a number of times recently. In the remains of a library, you squished a quasit, before passing through the cells down here, which now housed only decapitated prisoners. You approached the end of a long corridor, ending with a door. When the door was touched, it exploded, and Attlu and his slave turned on you. It turned out that the slave was the dangerous one here, and Attlu just the front for the pair, but nevertheless, you squished them easily.

Searching the rooms, you eventually found a secret chamber which housed the teleportation circle. It dumped you in the sewers somewhere. Nearby, you heard the sound of battle, and as you arrived, you saw a wizard who begged you to demolish the pillar holding up the room, to block the portal from which ether creatures were coming through. The wizard quickly died, overwhelmed by the ether creatures, leaving you to deal with them. You grabbed the wizard’s stuff, crushed the critters, and tore down the pillar, halting the spread of the Ether threat into Greyhawk City, whose sewers you were in.

Set in the Yatil Mountains

Finding no work in Krestible, you headed to Yatilskaad. There, some bedraggled caravan guards limped their way into town, citing a highway robbery by Kettite forces. Talking to the local Auszugen, you found your offer of searching out the attackers was welcomed. The attack was about half a day’s ride out of town, and you easily found it. Tracking the perpetrators, you were attacked by a trio of rapier wielding pathetics, whom were wererats, but you never found that out – they were wearing the uniform of the army of Ket, however. Further along the trail, you were attacked by ghasts (although you didn’t find that out, either), also in the uniform of the army of Ket. You discovered that ghasts are bad news, and camped out to recuperate from the attack. The next day, you continued following the trail, although it had grown a little old. You came across a clearing – the same one used by the band of Karl Hussen’s humanoids early on in the piece. A fiery woman was addressing her troops in draconic – Illene thinks that she’s a dragon. They left on some raid, leaving only the guy who got away and a couple of minions, who went back into the cave. Waiting for the army to leave, you entered the cave, and confronted the guy, who proved to be a pain in the arse, but also a complete pansy. His ghasts, on the other hand, were just a pain in the arse. Having defeated him, you looted, and returned to Krestible to be rewarded.

XP: Brottor picked up 1750 xp, Illene 807 (including scribing costs), Kendrick 1120, and Jarik 1870. That puts Illene and Jarik just over 5th level, and Kendrick just under 5th level. Brottor is about halfway to 6th.
GP: 550gp
Loot:

Set in the Yatil Mountains

Travelling back to Krestible, you ran into an ambush on a caravan in progress. Dealing with the ogres, you chased those who had escaped into the hills. You talked to the caravan owner, Aramet, who said that some of his people had been kidnapped, and his goods stolen. After a number of hours of tracking, you found the light failing, and the weather turning ugly, and so made camp in a sheltered area. Overnight, you captured a goblin who had infiltrated your camp in search of food. Turns out she was just hungry, and had some information for you on the location of those you pursued. She led you to where she said an ambush would be prepared, before running off. You thwomped the ogres who lay in wait, and headed for the bandit camp. A few orcs were present, drilling, and you thwomped them too, but it appeared that somebody got away, a disappearing act of sorts. In the cave at that location, you rescued some prisoners, and found some loot, as well as stolen goods, and evidence of a much larger force who were out. You stocked up with those you found and returned your way to Krestible. Aramet promised to give you a discount on an item of your choice at some later time.

Set in Schwartzenbruin

Last session, Illene decided that being out of Schwartzenbruin was a good idea, and so hightailed it into the hills. Brottor, Jarik and Kendrik, however, took the more daring route of attempting to confront what was about to happen. They were asked to investigate Karl Hussen’s plan as best they could, and given badges of the Voormansgardt to assist them in whatever way possible. Deciding to investigate the tunnels under the city, their first lead was to a man in den Toren, who suggested they talk to the ratters of the undercity. Talking to the ratters was no trivial task, however, and Kendrik needed to promise to return to Tantie Jessa when he had a chance before they would give him the information he desired – that there are some old, unused tunnels, lying deep below the city, and that there were strange goings on at the entrance to one of these tunnels recently, down at the docks. Making for the docks with all due haste, the trio started noticing a trail of death leading through the tunnel. Various thugs and Auszugen were left dead. Eventually, a pitched battle was heard, and the party burst in upon a group of armed thugs holding off against a group of Auszugen. The party valiantly joined the fray, only to have the Auszugen reveal themselves as traitors and turn on the party at an inopportune moment. Brottor’s eyes kept him out of trouble as he spotted the assassin preparing his death, but nothing could prevent the death of poor Buck, son of son of Buck, Buck’s revenge. About a minute into the battle, the traitor Karl Hussen joined the fray, and he eventually met his end at the hands of a mighty swing from Jarik. Battered but victorious, the party healed their wounds and travelled on into the darkness from whence Karl had come. Alas, they were too late, as an explosion shattered the peace well before they got to it. Disheartened and dismayed, the party returned, looted, and took Karl’s corpse back to the surface.

Back on the surface, a scene of chaos unfolded, as the council chambers had been blown up. The council had just reelected Karenin Weisspeer as Voorman, with Orgus Bildgear as Untervoorman. However, Karenin Weisspeer has disappeared, and Hasten Weisspeer has been slain. Worse, Hasten’s soul has been somehow stolen. Furthermore, Gutherie Roodberg, Pfaltzgraf of the Roodberg clan, has also been killed with his soul stolen. None currently know how or why.

A Sepian gnomish seeress entered a rapture shortly after the explosion, producing the following prophecy:

The Soul of the Judge,
The Soul of the fist,
The Soul of the Nation,
All snatched by the twisted lover.
Three Souls for the Prince of Laughter,
Three Souls to fuel his greed,
Three Souls to awaken in the darkness the thing that he most needs;
Only a mother’s ill choice now can undo.

Karla Hussen, Pfaltzgraf of the Hussen clan, requested Karl’s body and possessions, which you gave to her. You got the feeling that Karla is not a lady to be trifled with.

Orgus Bildger has been declared interim Voormann whilst Karenin is missing, and he has, together with the Old Kerk Hetshoolmann, Reanulf Solcarde, declared martial law. The Voormann is missing. The Pfaltzgrafs of the Weisspeer and Roodberg clans are dead, their souls stolen. Worse, news soon reaches you that Karl Hussen’s body is gone, missing, vanished, and once again it appears that Hanne Weisspeer has been abducted under strange circumstances. The future is oh so uncertain.

Thus sets the stage for Perrenland, and the continuation of our adventures.

Set all over Perrenand

The adventure started with a message from Hasten Weisspeer requesting your assistance. Hasten asked you to investigate a suspicious customer at an apothecary. After a chase, you were led to Den Rotgat, a bar of ill repute. You found your quarry there, but had a difficult time getting the information you wanted out of him. Arguments over looting privileges were had, but you journeyed off to Schwarztenbruin before things could come to a head. A little tornado interfered with your journey, but otherwise it was fairly uneventful. In Schwarztenbruin, following the trail, you discovered the ghost of somebody who knew where Hanne Weisspeer was being held. He requested that you provide his body its funeral rites, and told you where Hanne was being held. You found and buried his body (and found a treasure trove along the way), and returned his head to his cousin (before looting his apartment). Next, you headed on Northwards to the old abandoned stadt where Hanne was reported to be.

You found the stadt and raided it, taking out the weak opposition that resided there. However, you found evidence that explosives of some sort were headed for the capital, and rode South with all due haste to see what you could do to head any explosion off.

Set in Greyhawk City and the Cairn Hills

Fonkin asked you to drop by the temple of Lydia, where a man was dying from unknown causes. Fonkin said he could help, but you would need to travel to the Tower of Ramire to acquire the knowledge. The tower turned out to be a gnome illusionist’s tower, and after an exchange of riddles, he agreed to give you the knowledge you were after, from the Lady of the tower (a sphinx). She said that the circlet that the man wore was a cursed circlet of wererat origin, and that he should remove his jewellery and instead wear a special amulet for the rest of his life. Heading back to Greyhawk City, you were approached by a shady figure who offered to give you gold in exchange for the circlet, if you could return it to him. The man was saved, and you promised to dispose of the circlet properly. You took the circlet to your contact, who paid you your money, and there the adventure ended.

XP: 1250 xp for Brottor and Illene, 1400 for Kendrick

GP: 2350 gp (600 gp of which came from giving a cursed item to a bunch of wererats, you do realise?)

You paid to get Kendrick’s sword enchanted, and Fonkin produced the promised +2 Amulet of Health.

Set in the Bright Desert

Fonkin requested that you investigate a tower in the Bright Desert, to see if you could find any strange magical artefacts or other knowledge there. You decided to leave your modron follower with Fonkin for its own safety.

You set out on a boat to the Southern part of the Bright. Travelling through the hills towards the desert, you ran into a centaur, who bade you beware the forces of Rary in the area. A little further on, you encountered the massacre of a norker tribe. One lone norker, Narthos, survived. Giving him food and water, he travelled with you for a ways. Travelling through the desert, you saw a blue dragon fly overhead, whose moan struck fear into your very hearts, but didn’t otherwise engage you. You eventually made it to the tower you sought.

Inside the tower, you discovered that it was largely buried by sand. At the top of the tower, where you entered, a desiccated corpse clutched onto a spear and a scroll, which had a message for any who might find it. The rest of the tower was guarded by a Guards and Wards spell, much to your annoyance. The only thing of interest you found in the tower was right down the very bottom, where a room with chromatic dragon motifs was guarded by a deadly trap (that didn’t kill Brottor). Inside the room, you were assailed by a dreamstealer, who proved to be completely ineffective. There was also a prismatic sphere guarding something. Illene, however, worked out that the sphere was an illusion, and inside it lay something else. However, a cylindrical force field prevented you from reaching the funny rock inside it. You could read a fragment of a scroll however, which said something about “Unaagh” and a “bridge to darkness”. Feeling that there was not much more to do, you left the tower (forgetting to bring the corpse back as his note requested), and travelled back to meet your boat. As you travelled, you were attacked by the blue dragon, which almost brought about your ruin. Feeling lucky to be alive, you travelled back to Greyhawk City.

XP and GP: See next adventure (ran as a pair)

You paid 2950 gp for an atonement for Kendrick, having betrayed the principles of his deity. The priest let you off just this once, Kendrick, and gave you a 2500 gp discount.

Set in Greyhawk City

After your travels, you eventually made it to Greyhawk City, and found the gnome who you had heard was looking for adventurers. His house had just exploded however, and he begged you to rescue his familiar, Whifflepurr. Dashing to the top of his tower and back down in record time, he then asked if you had picked up his spellbook on the way? Illene and Kendrick raced back in to rescue the spellbook, too. Fonkin paid you handsomely for your services, and asked you to come back later, as he has other tasks for you.

Set in the Domain of Greyhawk

The party started in Narwell, where you had met up with Kendrick once again. However, after travelling so close to Celene, Oak could not resist the lure of the Elven lands, and bade his farewell to the party. The rest of you set off East, towards Greyhawk City.

Travelling in a group from Narwell to Safeton, you started to hear rumours of villages being burnt to ashes. You came across one village in particular that was blaming a priest and a small boy who followed him. The next town you reached was being inundated with people, worried about the fire demon burning down their homes. A merchant claimed to have seen a priest and a boy heading into the woods north of the town. Heading out there, you found a druidic circle. Only one druid had survived the visit of the priest however, as the fire demon had burnt all of the rest of the druids to ashes. Back in town, you searched around for the priest for a bit, but didn’t find him. The next morning, a strange blue glow brought you to a vision of a temple. A number of priests were conducting a ritual, but three of them had medallions which corrupted it. One of the priests with a medallion was the priest you were seeking. As the vision faded, you were attacked by some devils. The next day, you looked for the priest again, and eventually found him and the boy. Confronting the priest, the fire demon appeared and insisted that you kill him, or it would start killing innocents. The priest told you to find the boy; he was the only one who could stop the demon. The boy did so, containing the demon back in his head, but it summoned another devil to attack you in retribution. The old priest finally snapped, and turned on the party too. As he was slain, the curse he was bearing came to Kendrick, who now bears the Mark of Avernus.

Set in the Lortmil Mountains

Leaving Hilldon, you ventured further into the mountains, and eventually reached the town of Crystal Hollow, a gnomish mining town. You managed to sell some magical items there, and found out about a gnomish adventuring party that was missing. Following in their footsteps, you fought a wraith, before finding the bodies of the fallen gnomes. Suddenly, ankhegs attacked, but they were quickly slain. You returned the bodies of the gnomes to Crystal Hollow, and were granted their magical items in reward. You were also ripped off terribly by the gnomish jeweller in the village.

Set in the Lortmil Mountains

Leaving the small waytown, you travelled across the Duchy of Ulek and into the Lortmil Mountains. There, you met a strange sight – two small forces of modrons had almost completely annihilated each other, the only survivor being a lone monodrone, a funny spherical creature of law. It guided you to another force of modrons, who demanded that the little monodrone be surrendered to them. It was not difficult to destroy these modrons. Afterwards, you found that your monodrone friend was picking up basic common, and you learnt about a strike force that was due to destroy the nearby village of Hilldon, with the aim of taking out a rogue modron currently in residence in that town. “Collateral Damage Expected.”

The modron was able to lead you back to the modron command centre, where you talked to a creature that seemed to be in charge. After arguing for a bit, it seemed to assent to your party going to destroy the rogue modron, but that the strike force would ensure that the rogue was indeed destroyed. Rushing to Hilldon, you found the rogue performing in the village inn. Convincing him to stop singing was no mean feat, but eventually you persuaded him to put on a performance of his own demise, so that the strike force would be fooled into letting him live. After staging his death, you convinced him to leave the town, bound for Laufgen. Perhaps you will meet him again one day?

Set in Keoland

Having satisfied what curiosity you had about the blue-black stones and the funny kobolds in the swamp, you decide that it is high time to head to Greyhawk City. What manner of adventure will find you there? Who knows. As you travel towards the Lortmil Mountains, which will hopefully not impede your journey to the Gem of the Flanaess too much, you rest for a night in a small waytown in Keoland. Apart from good ale and a hearty stew, there is a small library to be found here.

Bound in leather, Illene finds a small book which has been neatly written by a monastery in Ket, if the maker’s mark is anything to go by. It appears to be a short treatise on Perrenland. Flicking through the neatly cut pages, you discover things that you hadn’t been aware of about the country you seem to have taken up residence in. For example, apparently Perrenland’s largest export is mercenaries, and the advertising campaign for the country has a tagline of “Your war is our business!”. Deciding that this might be a useful resource, you pocket the book while nobody is looking, for further study.

Set in Keoland

The morning started well, but you soon found yourselves confronting a street brawl in the docks area of Schwarztenbruin. Of course, you were just trying to help out the nice Lydians who were being unfairly victimised by the local populace. Alas, Kendrik was not present to enjoy the enclave of women that the temple of Lydia represented. Ah well.

They wondered if you’d be interested in escorting some children to a school down in Keoland. Taking up the offer of employment, you got to see the Krestingtrek from one end to the other, cross across Ket, Bissel, and the Gran March, before finally almost arriving at Redlee Manor. Of course, about a day out, you were attacked by griffons, one of whom almost captured and flew off with the orphan Ianta. It appeared that the griffons were being controlled in some way, using silver bands as a focus. At Redlee Manor, you were told the story of the children’s missing eyes by Stoakdor Redlee Neheli. He requested that you investigate a complex within the swamp, which he felt might be the location of one of the pairs of eyes.

In the swamp, you found a dying kobold. Healing him, he revealed himself as Tajlo, Paladin of the Tallbane Tribe. He bade you visit his village, which was little more than holes in the ground. You found out that the kobolds here are in possession of a blue/black stone artifact of incredible power. The Chief of the kobolds bade you return once you found stuff at the temple complex, and he may allow you to bask in the presence of the artifact.

At the temple complex, you found some centipedes which really offered no resistance. You also found a large blue/black slab. Most of the complex had collapsed into a crater, however, and there wasn’t much left to see. A single passageway entered, with text flowing all along the walls. However, nobody could read it, and so you just followed the passageway. A trap down the bottom hurt everyone, before the coridoor opened up into a chamber. There was not much in the chamber, except that a strange doorway completely blocked by black stone had more text around it. Deciding to go back out to rest so that Illene could prepare a Comprehend Languages spell, the party was attacked by a fell minotaur and a harpy. Narrowly defeating the duo, you returned to the kobold village.

At the kobold village, the chieftain happily received the blue/black stone slab, and allowed everybody to bask within the presence of the artifact. Various things happened, and Oak came out a little more eloquent at the expense of his intelligence.

Returning to Stoakdor, he listened to your report, and informed you that his divinations have suggested that more may be found in the land of Black Ice, and that he would contact you if he found out enough to mount an expedition there.

XP: 900 to Oak, Brottor, Illene and Jarik
Gold: 1000gp

Items Gained:

Oak’s bow was enchanted to +1

Other:

Jarik, Brottor, Oak and Illene received the Stigma of the Serpent from meditating in the presence of the artifact.

Set in Schwartzenbruin

Finding their way to Schwartzenbriun, our heroes enjoyed the festival that was taking place. However, after dark, they came across a man, stabbed in an alleyway and dying, who beseeched them to head to Ingolt Weisspeer’s manor. The dying knight passed on his sword, the mighty Vaukieper, to Jarik, before passing away. Armed so, the party headed to the Weisspeer manor. Dealing with multiple assailants inside, the party eventually met up with Ingolt Weisspeer, the target of the assassination. An unknown man beseeched the party to flee with Ingolt to the docks square, as some darkness was hunting them. Upon reaching the docks, Ingolt’s spell of light nullified the darkness of their final assailant, a Vrock – a demon of Iuz. Jarik managed to distract the vrock long enough for Ingolt to contain it, but as it vanished, it struck out with its power and felled Ingolt to the ground. Illene was first on the scene, and ascertained that Ingolt was only bluffing, but Ingolt’s brother Hasten arrived, declaring his brother dead, and a procession marched back to the Weisspeer manor. The man who told the party to flee was revealed as the Voorman Karenin Weisspeer himself, who was much saddened by the loss of not only his cousin, but also his neice Tamarind, who was married to the Roodberg Pfaltzgraf, and killed in the attack.

Set in the Yatil Mountains

On the way there, Brottor, Illene and Jarik helped a horse get out of a ditch. It took them a long while to do so, however. The man they assisted introduced them to an old, deaf wizard in the town of Skillet, whose brother was now believed to be lost in the hills. The following morning, the intrepid party headed to the hills, hoping to find the lost brother. Eventually, they stumbled across the ransacked campsite – for wolves had found food there, and the place was a mess. A dying dwarf in the campsite revealed that a tremor had caught their party unawares, trapping all but himself inside. Inside the cavern system, our intrepid adventurers eventually found the missing brother, and also managed to find a chamber full of Khondkhanen, the elusive Pots of Knowledge. Of course, that would be the moment they were attacked by creatures of darkness, and in the ensuing melee, managed to smash a number of these pots. However, seven remained, and the old wizard and his brother paid 200 gold each for the remaining pots. Illene did note that they were nonmagical pots.

Set in the ruins of Kir Russ

As Illene went off to seek theological insights, your troupe was invited to a celebration in Rikkendal – for Fraedrig Zussrig, sole surviving son of the Zussrig family (Adventure #1 with Little Janni the ogre), had returned home to claim his right as owner of the stadt. Little Janni was particularly happy to see you. The next morning, a messenger brought word from Hasten Weisspeer that Reggi Das, brother of Roggo Das, had been located in a mining camp a few day’s ride North towards the Mounds of Dawn. Hasten suggested heading to an inn, and asking for a guide to the mining camp. Doing so, once you arrived at the mining camp, you were captured, and thrown into a slave pen. You found out that Reggi was a slave master here (as she was under the impression that she was doing so to keep Roggo alive, who all she knew of was that he was held by Karl). Karl Hussen himself came to gloat at you, along with his friend Jasper Morgenrood, who ran the mining operation. In order to expedite your demise, you were sent along with Reggi into the ancient ruins of Kir Russ, ostensibly hunting for treasure for Karl. However, light rains (and the lack thereof) had lowered the level of the dam at the end of the canyon sufficiently that you managed to escape down a tunnel, which led back to the mining camp. Under cover of darkness, the slaves were freed, and a riot began. Yourselves, you took to Jasper’s headquarters, and took him prisoner. He pleaded for his life in exchange for information on what Karl has been doing. Armed with this knowledge (and Reggi’s testimony), you have travelled back to Krestible to inform Hasten. Jasper’s testimony was called for before the Council of Schwartzenbruin, but soon after he testified, he was found dead, a single crossbow bolt to the back of his head. Once a candidate for the Voorman of Perrenland, Karl Hussen, now shamed, has gone into hiding – none know where he is. Alas, however, for Hanne Weisspeer has also vanished. It is believed that she has been abducted by Karl.

Set in and around Krestible

Today’s adventure started with your approach to Krestible. Arriving in the evening, you found yourselves in the right place at the right time to stop some hobgoblins from stealing a bunch of Weisspeer horses. As such, you were noticed by Hasten Weisspeer, acting clan chief of the Weisspeer clan. He requested that you travel to Yatilskaad to investigate what was happening to Hanne Weisspeer, the Voorman’s Daughter. Hasten believed that Karl Hussen may be using magical charms to attract his neice. After being given the runaround for a day or so, you were attacked by men sent by Karl Hussen. Hanne found you shortly afterwards, and suggested that you follow a half-orc called Roggo Das, who was carrying messages to a camp of bandits. Catching Roggo, he eventually spilt the beans, but only after you promised to look out for his sister Reggi. Hanne asked you to escort Roggo back to Krestible to the care of her uncle. At the gates to Krestible, you were beset by paid mercenaries, and in the ensuing fracas, Roggo was killed by a single crossbow dart. Investigating the crossbow dart, it appears to have been coated with Wyvern poison, an incredibly expensive (and lethal) poison which ensured his rapid demise. Hasten thanked you for your efforts, and paid you 100 gp each, as well as provided you with Weisspeer warhorses. He also informed you that Karl Hussen had led a stunning counterattack against the bandit encampment, and is currently the man of the moment. Hasten, however, promises you that Karl will have his dues coming for him, and hopefully soon.

XP: 850 each
GP: 750 gp total

Other:

The Weisspeer warhorses are particularly fine breeds, and will sell for 250 gp if you wish to do so. You have one each.

Set in Laufgen

So, you’ve managed to defeat Ratticus twice more, and have braved your first otyugh. With the Khondkhanen in the hands of Anika Hondvoet, perhaps Laufgen will come out of its dark days and flourish. But you won’t be around to see that, because you’re hightailing it out of there as soon as you can.

Set in Laufgen

Today, you encountered the town of Laufgen. All in all, you did a many good things in Laufgen. Most importantly, you helped resolve the dispute between Cooper and Cobbler, and you saved Pixie from the malevolent Eugene Ratticus Maximus. Somehow, you feel that you have not seen the last of Ratticus…

Set in the Yatil Mountains

The adventure started in the Yatil Mountains in the Concatenated Cantons of Perrenland, about 30 miles Northwest of Krestible, along the Vestertrek.

You came to Oskindal, where Arald Zussrig invited you in for the evening. You met his family, and their adopted family member, Little Janni the ogre. The next morning, the family pig Neussi was missing, so you tracked the thief down to a druid’s grove. It turned out that the thief was just a poor starving servant who’d recently been fired. You met the gnomish druid, Lentiddly Zibwickling. Coming back to the Zussrig family, you found that they’d all been slaughtered, and upon closer investigation, it appeared that the whole thing was set up to look like the ogre killed everybody. You also noticed that the Spear of Allitur had been stolen. Tracking down the murders, you slew a bunch of mercenaries who were in combat with Little Janni. The last of the mercenaries (’coz you let the rest die) told you there were more of them, and they were meeting in the hamlet of Rikkendal. When you arrived in Rikkendal, a lynch mob formed upon finding out what had happened, but it soon was dispersed when the thatch of the town was set alight. You gave chase to the remaining murders, and eventually took them out. Little Janni headed off to find a new life. The Spear of Allitur was left to the remaining heir of Arald Zussrig.